Maclean's Music (110 preliminary Beyer)

[Merlinsky]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Yes - he won 4-for-11.

He finished the year with 8 figures of 115-to-125 in a row.

He won the Breeders Cup Classic "handily" by 6 lengths with a 120 Beyer at Hollywood Park ... in spite of Mike Smith making a crazy pre-mature move on the 1st turn.

Why punish a horse for a win/loss record - when those defeats are supreme performances against outstanding competition?

Uncle Mo had a thousand times better case for Horse of the Year over Zenyatta - than Favorite Trick did over Skip Away.

Maybe they just like to give really big trophies these days to horses that manage to start 8 times in a year.

Looking at the last 2yo HOY prior to FT, Secretariat won HOY in a year featuring both Riva Ridge and Key to the Mint (KTTM got 3yo colt). Secretariat actually beat out 2yo filly La Prevoyante for the award (sort of, she still got some partial recognition there). What's your opinion of the viable HOY candidates in that year as compared to Secretariat? With not 1 but 2 2yos topping the ballots that year, it was a rather unusual situation. Looking at some of the other horses running that year, it's not like the 3yos were bums.